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RHS gold medal winning garden installed in Bupa Battersea care home

15 January 2009

 

Chelsea will officially come to Battersea this week when the dramatic installation of a three tonne sculpture completes the new sensory garden at The Bupa Meadbank Nursing Centre in Battersea directly recreated from the 2008 Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) Chelsea Flower Show.

The dramatic sculpture is the focal point in a sensory garden that won two awards at the 2008 Chelsea Flower Show - an RHS Gold award and the RHS/BBC People's Choice Award. The RHS Gold Medal winning Bupa Garden showcases the aesthetic and the functional; addressing both the practical and stimulating emotional needs of people with dementia, whilst providing all visitors, residents, relatives and staff who will use the garden with pleasant and attractive vistas.

Bupa Care Service's head of mental health, Dr Graham Stokes, said: "Dementia is an issue of growing importance in the U.K., with over 700,000 people affected and one-in-five people over 80 having dementia. For people living with the disease daily, who can't communicate as we do, sensory stimulation is invaluable. Our Bupa Garden highlights how use of soothing as well vibrant, tactile and perfumed plants and materials can be of real benefit."

The garden was designed by Cleve West, winner of five RHS Gold Medals, who has overseen its transfer to Meadbank. He says the Bupa garden has been one of his most challenging and rewarding projects.

Cleve West commented: "Throughout Chelsea visitors were telling me about their own experiences of relatives who had dementia and how much they would have liked the garden. I am delighted that the garden will live on for residents of Meadbank and their relatives to enjoy for years to come."

Whilst Meadbank has received the award winning Chelsea garden, it is the pinnacle of a project which has seen sensory gardens installed in 250 Bupa care homes across the UK.

The project is run in conjunction with national disability and gardening charity Thrive which aims to create a new garden in the care home using colours, smells, textures and sounds. Residents, family, friends and the care homes' local communities then reap the health benefits and take advantage of the sensory stimulation.

Michalae Thompson, home manager, Bupa Meadbank Nursing Centre: "The residents and staff are thrilled to bits to be receiving such a prestigious garden and cannot wait for the weather to warm up so that we can use the garden more.

"We particularly love the Indiana Jones Raiders of the Lost Ark style massive centrepiece which seems to act like a magnet to all the garden's visitors who just can't help giving it a quick rub for luck."

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